’19 Top of the Rock Week 15

Poor roster management in our week 15 matchup cost us a chance to pull out a victory and end another losing streak.

For the second straight week, we failed to meet the goalie requirements, and it cost us all four categories, which we would have resulted in two wins and two ties. Instead, we continue to chase our sixth win of the season and just second since week four.

MATCHUP AND SCORES

When the season started, we were dominating teams with superb goaltending. Now our forwards are crushing it, and our goalies are out to lunch.

We dominated by seven goals and three assists for a 10 point cushion in those combined categories. For just the eighth time this season, we finished with a positive plus/minus rating, but even that wasn’t enough. Racking up penalty minutes has been our forte all season, while not collecting enough power-play points is how we roll. Thanks to a 14 point lead in shots on goal, we won the offensive categories 4-2.

Our goals-against average and save percentage were lights out, but when our guys only play in two games, we don’t play by the rules. Those rules cost us more points and some much-needed relief in our overall goalie stats. Looking back at our decisions in regards to starters, we really can’t dwell on it because what is done is done.

Top of the Rock was pitching a shut out in the matchup until Friday. They slowly started to chip away at our lead, before overcoming us on the final day, Sunday.

STANDINGS & TEAM STATS

The sixth-place team remains 15 points ahead of us, while first overall continues to stay 49 points ahead. The top five teams all have records of 0.500 or better, while the bottom seven teams continue to struggle with 0.400 win percentages.

After another stellar week of lighting the red light, we moved up another spot in the goals category, where we currently occupy the second spot all alone.

We saw no movement in the five other offensive categories.

As mentioned before, thanks to some subpar goaltending, we have dropped down in every league category. We once occupied the top two spots in each category, we now find ourselves struggling to stay in the top five.

BENCH PLAYERS

If Thomas Greiss (New York) and Marc-Andre Fleury (Las Vegas) had suited up, we could have easily won this matchup. Combine those two guys’ numbers with our two starters numbers, and we could have had the best week of the season. Unfortunately, it didn’t go down as we hoped, and our play has shown these mistakes are catching up to us.